Many aerial platforms such as airplanes, balloons, blimps, and drones or Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs) may desire broadband access.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) to allow the use of the Ku or 14-14.5 GHz band for the use of an air to ground (ATG) system. The use of the 14-14.5 GHz band for ATG deployment is contingent upon protecting the incumbent satellite services in this band. The ATG cell sites must be designed in such a way as to achieve the low emission limits toward Geo-Stationary satellites that will be imposed by the FCC. The 14 to 14.5 GHz band is primarily used for the uplink of geo-stationary satellite systems.
Another spectrum band that is a candidate for use for ATG applications on a non-interfering basis is the spectrum used for the satellite downlink, such as the 12-12.7 GHz band for the satellite direct broadcast service (DBS), and the 11.7-12.2 GHz used for downlink of fixed satellite service (FSS).
The 11.7-12.2 GHz and 11.2-12.7 GHz bands are available in the Americas, so called region 2. The DBS and FSS bands are also available in other regions in different parts of the Ku (12-18 GHz) band. There is also FSS spectrum available in the C and Ka bands to which the techniques of this disclosure also apply. The Ka band downlink and uplink FSS spectrum are in the 18-20 GHz and 26.5-40 GHz ranges, respectively. The exact location of the downlink and uplink in the specified range depends on the specific region of the world. The C band downlink and uplink are in the 3.7-4.2 GHz and 5.925-6.425 GHz range.
Thus there is a need for a system that utilizes the downlink and uplink of the FSS and DBS bands to provide Internet connectivity to aerial platform terminals as well as ground terminals, without interfering with the incumbent satellite receivers/services.